Redesigning the Estonian Tax Administration´s register of taxpayers

The commission helped support the Estonian Tax and Customs Board in defining a strategy to replace the outdated register of taxpayers, a core information system that is monolithic, costly, inflexible, and not sufficiently future-proof.

Context

The register of taxpayers is the core database of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board (ETCB). The information system supporting this register is critical to ETCB’s operations as well as for numerous other Estonian public sector entities. Yet, since its development more than 20 years ago, the system turned into a monolithic, costly, and inflexible whole, one that is not sufficiently future-proof. The beneficiary authority therefore requested technical support to set out a path for replacing this core information system.

The project aligns with the Estonia’s strategic priority of digitalisation and e-services. The project is also linked to the Commission’s priorities on the digital age.

Support Delivered

At the end of this 21-month project, the authority has at its disposal:

• diagnostic report on the technical and technological environment of the register of taxpayers;
• design report on the desired future information system supporting the register of taxpayers;
• decomposition strategy and decommission strategy;
• business case for the replacement of the monolithic core information system;
• implementation plan for the decomposing and decommissioning of the monolithic information system.

The project is funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument and implemented by EY and its subcontractor Cybernetica in cooperation with DG REFORM.

Result achieved

The technical support helped prepare the ETCB to pursue the replacement of the monolithic core information system. This replacement would entail 123 sub-projects (analysis and development), to be accomplished over a proposed 7-year period. As such, the deliverables are expected to assist the ETCB in improving the long-term sustainability of its register of taxpayers. Once completed, the redesigned and future-proof information system would, over the longer-term, facilitate the revenue authority’s operations, enable a higher use of new technologies and new e-services, and ultimately bring benefits to other public entities as well as taxpayers.

More about the project

You can read the documents related to the project here: